Chinese Jujube Date Sticky Rice Cake Recipe

Chinese Jujube Date Sticky Rice Cake is a traditional sweet treat served during Chinese New Year. It has a sticky, taffy-like consistency, and a sweet roasted fragrance and flavor from the jujube date jam (made with dried jujube dates). For the past several years, I’ve been trying new sticky rice cake recipes from my mom’s collection and my aunt, Florence Lin’s, cookbooks. The variations on Chinese sticky rice cake seem to be endless.

This year, one of the sticky rice cakes I ventured to make was my Auntie Florence’s Jujube Date Sticky Rice Cake. The ingredients call for jujube date jam, which was impossible to find, so I came up with my own recipe. Dried jujube dates have a sweet roasted fragrance and flavor quality, similar to roasted chestnuts. It’s subtle, but the flavor comes through in this jujube date sticky rice cake.

If you don’t want to make your own jujube date jam, Auntie Florence suggests substituting dark brown sugar which will sweeten and darken the cake but won’t provide the subtle fragrance and flavor of dried jujube dates. Most brown sticky rice cakes these days seem to be made with brown sugar probably because it is more expensive and time consuming to use jujube date jam. I suspect authentic Chinese sticky rice cake used to be made with jujube dates, as my Auntie Florence’s recipes are all authentically Chinese.

Several years ago, when I spoke to Auntie Florence by phone and got her Baked Coconut Sticky Rice Cake recipe, she recommended Mochiko brand sweet rice flour, which is produced in California. It is very fine and high quality, and can be purchased in the Asian grocery store.

The batter for this sticky rice cake is thick.

This sticky rice cake is steamed. You can either steam it on the stovetop for an hour, or use a pressure cooker or Instant Pot and steam for 30 minutes. If you use a pressure cooker or Instant Pot, you will need a small cake pan (I used a 6″ cake pan). This recipe makes two 6″ sticky rice cakes. So, using an Instant Pot only makes sense if you make half a recipe. I tested this recipe and made one in the Instant Pot and one in a regular steamer.

Insert a trivet in the bottom of the pot, add a cup of water, and cover the sticky rice cake before pressure steaming the sticky rice cake.

This jujube date sticky rice cake was delicious. I sent some to my mom and gave my sister some too. A little goes a long way.

Enjoy fresh, or the next day. It will firm up a bit. If you refrigerate it, the sticky rice cake will harden a bit. You can warm it up in the toaster oven or microwave.

Serve at room temperature by cutting into wedges or slices. Keep extras in the refrigerator or freeze for up to one month. To reheat cold sticky rice cake, cut into wedges or slices and toast in toaster oven. Alternatively, dip slices in beaten egg and pan fry with a little oil.

Steaming Method

Set up teamer with two tiers. Bring water to boil in steamer pot. Place one cake pan on each steamer tier. Cover and steam for one hour.

Carefully remove cake pan from pot. Let cool.

Serve at room temperature. Keep extras in the refrigerator or freeze for up to one month. To reheat cold sticky rice cake, cut into wedges or slices and toast in toaster oven. Alternatively, dip slices in beaten egg and pan fry with a little oil.

Recipe Notes

Adapted from Florence Lin's Complete Book of Chinese Noodles, Dumplings and Breads. If you cannot find date jam or don't want to make it yourself, Auntie Florence suggests using 1 1/2 cup dark brown sugar instead of the date jam and sugar.